A decision on the formation of the Ukrainian Bureau (UB) was taken on
13 March 1949 as a result of the split which occurred, against a
background of party political differences, at the annual general meeting
of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain held on 12-13
March. An executive committee was elected to govern the UB, comprising
Bohdan Panchuk (chairman), Eugene Pyndus (vice-chairman),
George Salsky
(executive director), George Wowk and Tadeusz Atamaniuk (secretaries),
and Mychajlo Krat (treasurer). The UB’s head office was in London. It
encouraged its supporters to form local Samopomich (self-reliance)
groups, and by August 1949 there were 84 such groups.

The work of the UB was divided into two strands, involving the
Ukrainian community on the one hand, and the British public on the other. With respect to the
Ukrainian community the UB provided advice and assistance to its members,
organised the sale of Ukrainian books and periodicals, took initial
steps aimed at the formation of a trades union for Ukrainian workers,
particularly European Volunteer Workers, and provided support for the
activities of the London Office of the Ukrainian National Council
Executive Committee. As a means of disseminating information to its
members it published the Bulletin of the Ukrainian Bureau, approximately
once or twice a month. The UB also sought to inform the British public
about Ukraine. It published several English-language leaflets and
brochures, including the first issue of the Ukrainian Newsletter, dated
January-February 1950, and planned to establish Anglo-Ukrainian Clubs in
towns and cities with large Ukrainian communities. The Central Office of
these clubs was to be based at the UB in London.

A constitution was adopted at a general meeting of UB members held on
20-21 August 1949. The meeting elected Panchuk as the UB honorary
chairman, as well as a council comprising nine members, from among whom
Wiaczislaw Kochaniwskij was subsequently nominated UB chairman. It was
also decided at the meeting to rename the Samopomich groups as
“Self-reliance groups of supporters of the Ukrainian National Council”.
At an extraordinary general meeting of the UB on 30 October 1949 a
community organisation entitled Federation of Ukrainians in Great
Britain (FUGB) was formed. UB members became members of the FUGB, and
the Bulletin of the UB was renamed Bulletin of the FUGB. The UB
continued to exist as a separate body and, for a transitional period,
its council managed the affairs of the FUGB.

On 11-12 March 1950 a general meeting of the UB and the FUGB was
held, at which a constitution was adopted for the FUGB and an FUGB
governing body was elected. The activities of the UB ceased at this
point. Panchuk continued to use the name Ukrainian Bureau in relation to
the London office of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee (UCC) after
becoming the UCC’s European representative in September 1950 (in March
1951 he was also appointed the Great Britain representative of the
United Ukrainian American Relief Committee). In June 1952 Panchuk, who
had arrived in the United Kingdom in 1941 with the Canadian armed
forces, returned to Canada.